two americans are the christian missionary, kenneth bay, being held for more than a year, and merle newman. he is the 85-year-old korean war vet who was seized in october at the end of a tour of the country. he was seen on state television this past weekend delivering what appeared to pretty much every expert to be a forced apology. now, clearly neither his case nor that of kenneth bay are likely to be helped best the ongoing political in-fighting in north korea. listen to gordon chang again. >> it's clear that the political sensitivities in pyongyang have been heightened. nobody is going to want to make that decision because that decision can be criticized and and when people are being executed, everybody plays it safe. >> so as long as this fighting go on, the agony is likely to go on for the families. >> and longer term, how do we deal with this dictator? we really don't know him yet. >> the problem is here, simply, the unpredictability. there's political infighting that makes everybody grab for power wherever they can, makes its far more difficult for hour diplomats to know what to do